Unattended Install with Custom Partitions

[waves]

I created a slipstream unattended installation cd for xp home. I do a lot of reformatting for people, and often times it is the same people over again. What I would like to do is have the unattended install automatically partition the hard drive into 2 partitions: C and D. I would like the D partition to be 4 gigs, and C to be the rest of the disk. I would like the unattended install to automatically install Norton Ghost on the C partition. Then, once the install is done, I would manually ghost image the C partition to the D partition so that when that person calls me to reformat again, I can simply restore the ghost image, which takes 10 minutes as opposed to a lot more time. Can this be done? Thanks.

[oioldman]

no, well yes you can do that, but need to use either winpe or bartpe along with diskpart to do this.

[mmarable]

Sure, it can easily be done.

You can go with WinPE and you can script all of this. Since you only know the set size that you want your D drive to be you won't be able to use trickery in the SIF file to create your partitions.

In a nutshell, you'll boot into WinPE and have a diskpart script partition up your drive. Or, since you're planning on using Ghost you can get real slick and use GDISK32 to create a hidden partiiton and use that for your Ghosting.

You'll then have WinPE kick off an unattended install of WinXP, install Ghost and even Ghost the drive to an image.

The problem you're going to be running in to is when it comes time to recover. The user will have to boot from something other than their Windows drive. So, they'll have to boot from a CD with Ghost or you can do like we do and have a hidden partition at the end of the drive that will boot WinPE and allow them to Ghost the C drive.

[waves]

Forgive me, but I don't know what winpe is! Right now what I normally do is manually create 2 partitions with my unattended install (it's unattended except for creating partitions), and then when it is done I install ghost on the c drive where windows is, and create an image and store it in the d: partition. Whenever I want to reformat c, I just run ghost from windows and it restarts in dos mode and reformats. As long as the image is not on the C drive you can do this. Why do you say you can't? I have done it many times.

[waves]

ok, I did some research and I now know what winpe and bartpe are. I do own a copy of ghost and gdisk. Where can I find instructions on how to do what you stated above? I would like to partition the drive into 2 partitions, c and d, with d being 4 gigs and c being the rest, run unattended install with ghost installed, and have the unattended also create a ghost image of the c partition on the d partition, and hide it. I am new to all of this, but I pick things up pretty fast, so if someone could point me in the right direction, I'm sure I could figure it out. I already have the unattended install created, I just need the batch file, or whatever is needed in the begining to start the whole process. Thanks.

[waves]

Ok, I thought about this, and here is what I really want to do:

I would like to create a cd that will automatically partition my harddrive into 2 partitions: C and D. The D drive will be 4 gigs, and the C drive will be the rest of the drive. Windows will be installed on the C drive as well as ghost. I have a slipstream copy already, but I don't know how to have ghost automatically installed. I don't want to automatically create a ghost image because I may want to tweak around a little after the unattended install before I make an image. So, I would put the cd in, it would reformat the drive into C and D automatically, and then proceed to install the slipstream copy of windows and ghost on the c drive, all unattended. If someone could get me started on this I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

[urie]

If you are working for yourself and can afford or get them to pay for it you could use acronis true image OEM we used to use it in a friends shop a few years back when building machines, mind you this version is old now don't know current version

Acronis True Image OEM for PC

version 6

About The Program

Acronis True Image OEM PC version allows the backup and restoration of an original

hard disk and its contents. A special hidden partition is created on a user’s original hard

disk drive to create an image on.

The original contents of the hard drive are stored in compressed form, with the disk

image being as small as possible and defined by the size of the compressed OS and

applications that have previously been installed. As the result, the copied contents

occupy only a relatively small amount of space on most hard disks.

Once an image is created, the contents are secure and cannot be changed.

In case any malfunctions occur, you can restore the hard disk contents from a previously

created image precisely as it was at the moment of sending the PC image to the

distribution network.

The PC Version of Acronis True Image also provides the user with a proprietary re-boot

utility. With the Acronis True Image PC version, pressing F11 at boot up creates the

complete restoration of an image without using the computer’s operating system.

System Requirements

A Windows based PC with a Pentium processor, a minimum 32Mb RAM, and 12Mb of

free space available on hard disk for installation are all required for the use of the

program.

The OS systems supported are: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP.

The minimum disc space required is that which is equal to the size of all the data to be

partitioned and stored for later back up.

Installation

Acronis True Image OEM should be installed after all other necessary software has been

installed. Run the setup program with the command /silent option to install the

software to Windows (including copying program files to the disk, registry setup, Start

menu items creation). No dialog windows requiring any user actions will be shown. The

entire installation procedure takes a matter of seconds. After the program has been

installed, at the next reboot, a hidden partition will be created and a hard disk image

stored on it.

Having installed Acronis True Image OEM, the computer may be turned off for shipping

preparations. At the first turn-on in a retail shop or at the user’s home, a hard disk

image will be created before the OS is loaded.

You could install this last on your unattended setup with /silent switch

hope this may help you.

Edited May 24, 2006 by urie